The present disclosure relates to an image forming apparatus, such as a copier, a printer, or a facsimile machine, that is provided with an image carrying member and a transfer member which transfers a toner image formed on the image carrying member to a recording medium.
Commonly, in conventional image forming apparatuses adopting an electrophotographic process, an electrostatic latent image is formed on an image carrying member such as a photosensitive drum the surface of which has been electrostatically charged uniformly, and by use of a developing unit, a toner image is formed based on the electrostatic latent image on the image carrying member. Then, by use of a transfer member such as a transfer roller that forms a transfer nip portion with the image carrying member, the toner image formed on the image carrying member is transferred to a sheet which is transported, and then the sheet is passed through a fixing unit, where the toner image is fixed on the sheet.
A configuration is known in which a developing unit is removable from the main body of an image forming apparatus. When a jam occurs inside the image forming apparatus, it is possible to remove the developing unit to take out a jammed sheet.
On the other hand, an image forming apparatus is known that is provided with a transfer roller release lever which opens a nip between a photosensitive drum and a transfer roller. When handling a jam, it is possible to open the nip between the photosensitive drum and the transfer roller by operating the transfer roller release lever, and thus to easily remove a sheet stuck in the nip.